Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-06-09
infant Hargc2d, now the thronged, the
famous, the wealthy university:

naTFC1Q, HOW ble blo
famous, the wealthy university:
And who were on the catalogue
when college work begunY
1.-TWO nephews of the President,
And the Professors son
Lord, how the seniors knocked about
The Freshman cless of one"
For what is a college? Or better still,
what is THE COLLEGE, in its widest and
most generic sense. Certainly it is not a
building, or bdildings, much as these
may be worth in the best conduct of its
work. When | fret went to Tennessee
soon otter the war, / WAS told that a ONE
story school house, framed and all glass
windows. was a COLLEGE, and a TWO
story structure of the same sumptuous
character was a UNIVERSITY. 1t would
seem useless to dwell upon this point if
the mistake had not been made over and
over again, beginning with a building.
All yer the land are handsome edifices,
perfect in appointment, admirably loca-
ted, expressly built for colleges, but
vacant now, or devoted to other purposes,
or half filled, The poet has told us what
constitutes a state aMen who their
duties know but Know their. rights and
knowing dare maintain And Aristides
voiced the same sentiment: Neither
walls, theatres, poiohes, nor senseless
equlpage make states, but MEN who are
able to rely upon themselves" Alcaeus
also produced a saying which Themisto-
cles approved and which many afterwards
claimed, MOT stones, nor wood, nor the
art of artisans, make a state, but where
MEN are who know how to take care of
themselves, there are cities and walls"
In even a greater than this, brick
and stone, and iron, and wood, nor
costly marble, o bronze make a COL
lege. The true college is a living, vital
thing. creating for itself its habitation.
1t always lives ahead of its housing,
always needs more room, it calls contin-
ualiy for a library, q dormitory, a labor
atory, a chapel, a gymnasium, another
dwelling, or a larger n It is like the
chambered nautilus, year by year build
ing more lofty mansions, ~sleaving the
~low-yaulted past" Now I nave been
told that in the west it is necessary to
strike the eye, to arrest the attention, to
to bu'' o handsome front, in fact that q
plaii. editice exposes the college to the
suspicion of being a very ordinary
affair. / accept that, the best minds
will not resort to q college il they do
not know of its existence, and handsome
buildings may be the very best adYer-
tlsement of the college, but they are
not the college, and never can
be, the clothing makes the man, or the
husk makes the golden corn. Buildings
you must have, in such q climate as this.
llb was in Greece that philosophers
taught in groves aad gardens. No
building is too good for our boys aud
girls. l hope to SEES the time when your
college and this collegiate city shall
boast OF it's halls, and its labora-
tories, Its observatory, and its srt gal.
lery, its museum and it's libraries. But
you might have all this and yet have no
college,-no throbbing personality with
IN, no quickenIng spirit.
The same is + OF endowments. One
OF your neighboring state universities is
| said to have a fund OF O million dollars,
but there is no central Life, no organic
whole, no sensitive, growing thing with
in. For educational uses ii. is we'll nigh
o failure. Money will NOT make a coll
lege, although the want OF money will
cripple il, and possibly kill 1T. We live
in q material age and we have to fight
constantly against material views, end
| estimates and ideas. A college is not a
factory. Money cannot do anything. IL
simply helps, Brains without money is
better than money without brains-for
money, / repear, of itself is as inert and
useless as gold IN the fathomless sea.
It is only when Intelligence and pur-
pose-it may be q low degree Of i~ntelli-
gence, and o base purpose-lay hold up
on it. that its real power is displayed. It
is b giant instrument OF mind, and
men OF mind ire the only ones who can
get it, nae 1t and keep 10. Funds will
not make your college,much as they will
heip-certain things you cannot do
without money. There is not n single
thing-worthy, Indifferent or unworthy
which you can do with money alone.
There are a Thousand noble things which
you can do without money. These are
the things priceless and sublime. Nor
again is it ytas;a:sad:history that makes
a college, nor great names spread along
the galaxy OF it's alumni. Is it not pa
tbetIc to see the college of William and
| Mary-the college which trained three
presidents OF the United States, and
very many other great men of the col
onlaI and the revolutionary period, the
second in age OF the collegiate inetitu-
tions of the country, is il not pathetic
to see that college without q pupil, and
it's portal opening only that one officer
of the college may daily enter his study
to our for the days departed and sigh
for the dawn OF q second day of pros
perity? A college cannot live on its
past, any better than o equatter can live
in his family tree or be clothed with the
ancestral coat Of arms.
There is nothing great in man but
mind-If oar physica. organization be
more complete and delicate than that of
the other ssntient creatures, it is in kind
the same as theirs, and 30 Ear forth VS. are
like them--every man, In proportion to
l his manhood, in his best moments at
least, will exclaim:
II would be measured by my soul.
The minds the standard of the man."
We claim our heritage. We will not
sell our birth-right. Mind-not In any
narrow sense, but In its royal breadth of
meaning-mind capable OF undiscovered
and unlmagined gains and groWths,
mind vital with potencies, possibilities
and powers, this constitutes us what we
are, and it is the contact OF mind with
mind, the collilio OF opinion
with opinion; the dash OF argument,
che kindllng OF emotion, the inspiration
of emulation and exsmple-thsse and
things like these that make yeur college,
o true!sort Of education, even more than
of Learning. The nolltsry man is not o
full and natural man. The monastery,
the cell, even in eaclssiasticism, has
given place to the convent, men meet
in the convent. That is what convent
means. In the college selected men
come together. Face answereth to face,
one man cannot educate himself. A
stick of wood refuses to burn without
its fellow. A base assemblage. educatss